I'm back from DC. As usual, I had a great time at my General Board of Church and Society meeting. I always enjoy my trips - I usually get to spend time with my college roommate, who lives in Annapolis, and her husband (who lived across the hall from us at OWU), I get to enjoy DC and walk around the city, and enjoy the weather (the leaves are out in DC - not quite there yet in Central New York!), I try to take in a show/performance if I have time free, and I just thoroughly enjoy being involved in the work of GBCS and the social justice advocacy that GBCS engages in.Worship is always a highlight of these meetings. I enjoy getting to know other board members better, and hearing them preach and watching them lead worship always tells me something more about who they are. Margie Briggs, a lay woman from from the Missouri Annual Conference, preached at our opening worship, and she was just excellent. Preaching on James 2:5-26, she talked about her grandmother's theology, which she called "Mousetrap Theology" - if it affects one of God's children, it affects all of God's children. She talked about learning as a child that "God expects something from me," and the importance of teaching that to our children, to everyone. She also told a story of reading through her grandmother's Bible, and seeing near many challenging passages four letters - JTMH. Everywhere there was a challenging command from Jesus - to love neighbors, to follow, to take up the cross, to remove the plank from the eye, to give up possessions - she would see the letters JTMH. Finally, Margie found the original place her grandmother wrote the phrase in full: "Jesus, Teach Me How." Indeed!
Jim Winkler gave his General Secretary's report - he talked about the focus of his time as General Secretary, which he laid out when he first started, and which is laid out in the Book of Discipline: 1) Connecting GBCS to local churches/communities 2) Joining together justice and mercy 3) Implementing the Social Principles (I have yet to get the full text of his address, so these comments are from my scribbled notes. I'll link to the full address later on. Jim talked about what we treasure in a series of compelling if/then statements - "If we treasure only our own security, then ____" The verse from Matthew about our heart being wherever what we treasure is is one of my favorites. He asked himself/us, "Do we really seek to love our neighbor as we love ourselves?" And he highlighted the four areas of focus (PDF document) that boards/agencies will together seek to emphasize in the UMC: Leadership development, congregational development, ministry with the poor, and global health.
Dr. Mickey Morgan, a district superintendent in the North Alabama Conference, preached on Saturday morning (confession: I missed worship on Friday morning. I'm a delinquent. And a night-owl.) He asked us, "Do we trust Jesus to be right about everything?" He challenged us, saying that we say that we do, but that our actions suggest otherwise. "Our silence is a way we participate in the hatred we see," he said.
Sunday morning I had the pleasure to worship again at Foundry UMC, and to again confirm that Dean Snyder is alive and well. I really enjoyed this service, but I will write more about that in my next post, when I have my bulletin and notes handy... I'll also tell you more about our legislative committees and the work part of our meeting ;)
10 comments:
Beth,
Thank you for the report. My question would be (and perhaps it needs to be directed to our conference GBCS rep) how do those of us on the front lines connect GBCS with the folks in the pews while cutting through the garbage from IRD and the like?
Wayne
Oh, and thanks for the update on Dean. I've really missed his commentary in the Methoblogosphere.
"And he (Jim Winkler) highlighted the four areas of focus that boards/agencies will together seek to emphasize in the UMC: Leadership development, congregational development, ministry with the poor, and global health."
If the GBCS really highlighted leadership & congregation development, ministry to the poor & global health, they would have my 100% support. However, the GBCS presence is far more apparent in promoting a pro-homosexual and pro-abortion agenda. That's why I see the GBCS as an opponent who must be worked against rather than a friend who works with me.
I don't see how you can say that John - GBCS does absolutely no work related to human sexuality, other than submit petitions to General Conference - this seriously takes up about 15 minutes of plenary time. Otherwise, there is no way in which GBCS works on "promoting a pro-homosexuality agenda." And GBCS is involved with organizations that are pro-choice, but again, very little work that GBCS does has anything to do with abortion or certainly a "pro-abortion agenda". For perspective, try searching for the terms abortion, homosexuality, poverty, and health on the GBCS website - you'll see vastly different numbers in the results...
Elizabeth,
I, like Wayne, was glad that you saw Rev. Snyder and that he is doing well.
I also used to very much enjoy reading his Blog and I hated to see him pull the plug on it.
Beth,
You are living in denial if you think the GBSC doesn't promote homosexual and abortion.
From the GBSC website comes this letter from Mr. Winkler:
I am writing regarding the bill on late-term abortion that will soon be considered by a conference committee due to the recent passage of S.3 in the Senate. After analyzing S.3 and HR 760 as to their compatibility with the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church, we are unable to support these pieces of legislation.
The section of our Social Principles that speaks to the issue of abortion states "We oppose the use of late-term abortion known as dilation and extraction (partial-birth abortion) and call for the end of this practice except when the physical life of the mother is in danger and no other medical procedure is available, of in the case of severe fetal anomalies incompatible with life."
I urge you to improve the legislation through the inclusion of a provision for the exception for fetal anomalies.
Sincerely,
James E. Winkler
General Secretary
When the General Secretary of the GBCS writes an open letter opposing a ban on partial birth abortion, how can you say the GBCS isn't pro-abortion?
And are you really going to tell me that the vast majority of GBCS members are satisfied with our present Disciplinary statement that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching?
John, I don't argue the fact that many who work with GBCS also wish the UMC had a different stance on human sexuality. For many working with social justice issues, those things seem to go naturally hand in hand. My issue with your statement, is that your comment seems to say GBCS does more work with a "pro homosexual and pro abortion agenda" than with leadership development, congregational development, ministry with the poor, and global health. And those you might claim that I am "living in denial" (despite my being on the board for 7 years now), I'm saying that this statement of yours is not backed up by fact. I'm not denying that GBCS spends some time - as I already said - very little - on reproductive right issues - in accordance with our social principles, which seeks health related exceptions to dilation and extraction - I'm saying that it isn't our focus, where the bulk of GBCS spends time, resources, money, staff, etc., by any stretch of the imagination.
Wayne - sorry for the delay in responding to your comment. It is hard to help people - there is so much false information about GBCS out there, and my biggest frustration with IRD is that I feel they seriously slant reports on the work GBCS does - it is no wonder folks believe GBCS works so exclusively on some issues that we barely spend time on at all. In GBCS' mind, the solution is increasing presence/awareness in local churches/annual conferences, but I know that happens inconsistently - some conferences have actual church and society staff - others have no channel really for these issues.
Beth,
I think your response to Wayne is more to my point. The GBCS doesn't make headlines very often for their work in leadership development, etc. More often than not the news about the work of the GBCS or the press releases that come out of the GBCS have little to do, at least from my perspective, with what you said are the Bd's priorities. That "fact" may have more to do with the way news is reported (controversial issues always garner more attention), than the actual work of the Bd. As I see it, the GBCS stance on those controversial issues overshadow whatever other good works which are happening.
John - thanks for the clarification and helping me understand what you mean better. I think that definitely the media (especially non religious media, mainstream media) is really only interested in reporting about GBCS or even the whole UMC when the issues are controversial. UMNS does better work in highlighting the other things GBCS is about - and GBCS's own newsletter does a good job, but of course, that is on an email subscription basis, so there is the trick of getting people signed up in the first place. I feel it is a definite struggle for GBCS, but one that is definitely on everyone's mind there too - how to make the work more visible and more well-known by people. Because yes, the controversial does always overshadow the other things in terms of public perception, and that is frustrating but more importantly counter-productive!
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